silk_steam_and_steelfandomcom-20200214-history
Flowering Nightshade
Flowering Nightshade Trigram Attributes: 16 points Hexagram Skills: 32 Languages Spoken: Chinese, Cantonese. Languages Read: Chinese, classical Chinese. Weaponry: Notable Equipment and Resources: Snake Fist Style: Flowering Nightshade is highly trained in Snake Fist, a boxing style that emphasizes precise striking with the fingertips. It's rapid fire strikes slip through an enemy's defenses, ignoring their Parry value when attacking in close combat. Scorpion Style: ''Flowering Nightshade is also trained in Scorpion style, which emphasizes acrobatic kicking techniques. It's long range gives it an edge over hand attacks, causing it's user to win on ties in close combat. ''Spider Style: ''Developed by assassins, the rare Spider style emphasizes luring opponent's into traps and then binding them with joint locks. As a grappling style, it ignores opponent's Offense when parrying in close combat. ''Poisons: Flowering Nightshade keeps a number of poisons on hand, many of them synthesized out of his own blood and sweat (gross). Some are kept in syringes that can be injected into foes in hand to hand combat, others are in vials that can be surreptitiously poured into food and drink, some are in smoke bombs that can fill a closed room. Thanks to the Prepared Pharmacist talent, he always seems to have the right poison on hand at the right time. He has eight Resource points to be spent on drugs and poisons, as he needs them. Poison Gas Grenades: ''Flowering Nightshade carries a number of smoke grenades on his person, most of which have been mixed with a number of deadly poison gases. Thanks to his Still Breath ability, he does not not need to worry about poisoning himself with them. With his Prepared Pharmacist talent, he can choose the type of poison ad hoc as he deploys the grenades. ''Smoke Grenades: ''When he wants to disappear without killing everyone in the room, Hefan will usually just resort to these smoke grenades. ''Regular Grenades: ''And then there are times when he just wants to blow people up. For these occasions, he carries a few high explosive grenades. ''Modest Lifestyle: Hefan usually lives on the run, staying in boarding houses and inns that don't ask too many questions. Horse: ''Hefan stumbled across this horse in the woods, injured and abandoned. He was able to nurse it back to health, and the two have been close companions since. It's name is Shadow, and it is his best friend. Flowering Nightshade does not have a lot of friends. Talents: '''Light Body Technique!' You have studied the art of Qinggong, ''the ability to make the body more light and agile. When you activate it, your body functions as though it is light as a leaf. You can stand on objects that could normally not support your weight, such as willow branches, still water, or the spears of your enemies. You cannot fly, but you can glide through the air, losing one foot of height for every teen feet traveled. Your gliding speed is matched to your running speed. This ability requires one point of Breath per round to keep active. Still Breath! Through total mastery of your body, you can temporarily suspend breath, heartbeat, and other vital functions. Spend a point of Breath; for the remainder of the scene, you no longer need to breathe. This renders you immune to many poisonous gasses, and allows you to stay underwater indefinitely without drowning. Additionally, it allows you to fake your own death very convincingly. '''Poison Skin Technique!' By ingesting deadly poisons, you have trained your body to secrete venom through your pores like a poison toad. Spend a point of Breath to activate this talent, and choose a poison type. For the duration of the scene, anyone who comes in physical contact with you - either by attacking you unarmed, receiving an unarmed attack from you, or other means - is affected by the poison, with the damage being equal to your Internal Alchemy total. When applied via a strike or brief physical contact, the poison has a one round delay to set in; when applied via grappling or prolonged physical contact, it takes effect immediately. Each time you activate this talent, you may select a different poison to secrete. Steal The Breath! You can steal the vital essence from another, replenishing your own. To enact this power, you must be close enough to touch them. Make a Sorcery check, opposed by their Fortitude; for every success you gain over theirs, you gain one point of Breath, and the target loses one point of Breath, up to their current total (thus, even if you scored five successes over your target, if they only had four points of Breath, you could only steal four). This spell requires either physical contact or a sample of the target's blood to enact, and may be combined with a physical attack via a Hand to Hand/Sorcery stunt. Counter: ''If this talent is used on a target who also has the Steal the Breath talent, they may roll Sorcery for defense to reverse the flow. In which case, the target gains breath and the attacker loses it. '''Blood to Blood'! By casting this spell, the sorcerer seeks to heal their own wounds by given them to a single target in their line of sight. Spend a point of Breath, and make a Sorcery check opposed by your target's Fortitude; if you are successful, one wound you have suffered disappears from your body and appears on the targets. Thus, if you have one light wound and two moderate wounds, you could transfer one of the moderate wounds with the spell. If you desire, the sorcerer may injure themselves as part of the spell, so long as they are sufficiently armed. In doing so, they may choose the extent of the wound delivered, including lethal ones. However, this carries risk, as should the spell fail, the sorcerer must bear the wound inflicted. This spell requires either physical contact or a sample of the target's blood, and may be combined with a physical attack via a Hand to Hand/Sorcery stunt. Counter: If this talent is used on a target trained in the sorcery skill, then the target may spend a point of Breath roll Sorcery instead of Fortitude to defend; if successful, then they are able to redirect the curse onto a third party, who then makes a Fortitude roll. Due to the nature of this curse, it cannot be reflected straight back at the caster. Curse of the Black Blood! This curse disrupts the internal functions of another person, inflicting the target with crippling maladies. To inflict the curse, the sorcerer must either have a blood link or be able to make physical contact with the target. Spend a point of Breath and roll Sorcery against the target's Fortitude. If successful, they are effected as though by a poison of the caster's choice; inflicting blindness, paralysis, and so on. For the full list of poisons, see Equipment. This spell requires either physical contact or a sample of the target's blood, and may be combined with a physical attack via a Hand to Hand/Sorcery stunt. Counter: If this talent is used on another Sorcerer who also possesses it, then the target may spend a point of Breath roll Sorcery instead of Fortitude to defend; if successful, then they are able to redirect the curse, either back onto the caster or onto a third party, who then makes a Fortitude roll. Prepared Pharmacist! You always keep poisons and drugs on hand. By paying the full price of the item, you can make retroactive craft checks pharmacological items to have the desired item on your person when you need it. Ingenious Deadly Venoms! You are capable of creating drugs and poisons that deal multiple effects simultaneously. You can create poisons that deal two effects at the same time, such as a nectotoxin that also acts as a sedative, or a neurotoxin that also induces hallucinations. When creating such poisons, the cost of the item is doubled. Abilities that simulate the effects of poisons via spending Breath (such as Poison Hand Strike) may make use of this by spending two points of Breath Biography: Hefan was raised in the Black Lotus Sect, a heterodox form of Daoism that believes the essential life force can neither be created nor destroyed, merely change vessels. To give life through siring children is to sacrifice one's own vital essence; to take another's life is to extend one's own. To become immortal, one must take the lives of others. Thus, their principal religious activity is murder. They hire themselves out as freelance assassins, and are found throughout the darkest corners of the criminal underworld. This is not exactly a wholesome environment in which to raise a child, and while other children were playing in the streets, young Hefan was being taught black magic, poisoncraft, and martial arts. His adopted father was an adept of the Black Lotus, who claimed that he saw potential in the young orphaned child – alas, if only his motives had been so innocent as teaching a child to murder. Hefan's adopted father had broken one of the cardinal rules of the Black Lotus – he had sired the child himself. He believed that, by raising a child to adulthood and teaching it the secrets of the Black Lotus'' he could temporarily lend some of his vital energy into another vessel, cultivate it, and recoup it with interest; like a farmer cultivating crops, Hefan had been “cultivated” by his father. The night that Hefan's father tried to kill him was less than pleasant, to say the least. He escaped, and disappeared into the ''jianghu, ''ever looking over his shoulder. '' Personality: Flowering Nightshade is an aloof and hard-edged fellow, with fairly deep and profound trust issues. He does not make friends easily, and tends to be withdrawn. Though he still believes in the fundamental cosmology of the Black Lotus sect – that life a transferable force – his experience has led him to despise it's members, and he has fully apostatized from the sect. As a result of his experience, he is quite vindictive toward those who he considers to be abusing the weak. Appearance: What did he look like? I'll tell you: The youth's body is strong and agile, His features sharp and angular. Brilliant tattoos cover his skin, Depicting venomous plants and animals in shades of green and purple. His hair is shaved on the right side and worn in a long braid on the left, A parody of the Manchurian queue. His clothing is simple and dark, Colored in black and gray and midnight blue. Playstyle: Flowering Nightshade is a fairly complex character, based around poisoning and debilitating his foes. Many of his skills are paltry on their own, but deadly when combined; with his gas grenades and Still Breath talent, he can fill a room with deadly poison that affects everyone but himself. By combining his Ingenious Deadly Venoms talent with his supernatural abilities, he can produce poisons with double effects. By combining Curse of the Black Blood with Poison Skin Technique, he can inflict two sets of venoms at once; thus, in a single strike, he is capable of leaving his opponent blind, deaf, nauseated, and numbed all at once. Similarly, by combining his gong fu and his sorcery skills, he can simultaneously restore his Breath or his injuries while attacking foes. Relationships: Hefan does not make friends easily, but has found common ground with certain members of the Mount Liang Society. The Miraculous Hand took the youth in while he was on the run, though Hefan is far from trusting any doctor ever again. Like Charity Goodkind, he is a runaway youth with mysterious powers and a dislike for most other people, and there may be a budding teenage romance between the two. Like Rajagni Singh, he has an affinity for stealth, poison, and not wearing a shirt; others tend to assume that they're friends, though Hefan finds Singh's flamboyant persona excessive. Poison Reference table: Common Poison Types: Nausea': ''You begin to experience nausea and vertigo. Even basic actions are hard to perform. ''Game Effect: ''You are incapable of performing Stunts or linking Skills. ''Critical: ''You are incapable of doing anything. Though still conscious, you are disabled. '''Numbness: You're limbs begin to tingle and lose sensation, as your internal energy meridians become blocked. Game Effect: ''You cannot expend Breath, either to activate supernatural or recover from injuries. ''Critical: ''You cannot feel. You cannot move. You are paralyzed until treated. '''Blindness: '''Your vision grows dim, and the world fades away. ''Game Effect: ''You lose the ability to see. Attacks cannot be aimed, vehicles cannot be steered. Those trained in Awareness may be able to use their others senses to compensate; the exact in game effects of being blinded are up the Narrator. Those trained in Awareness may be able to use their others senses to compensate; the exact in game effects of being blinded are up the Narrator. '''Deafness: '''Your ears begin to ring, until all you can hear is the ringing. ''Game Effect: ''You lose the ability to hear. Communication becomes, and someone who has bee both blinded and deafened is extremely impeded in what they can do. Those trained in Awareness may be able to use their others senses to compensate; the exact in game effects of being deafened are up the Narrator. 'Burning Venom: 'An acidic poison courses through your veins, burning you from the inside. ''Game Effect: ''Each round left untreated, you take a light wound of damage. ''Critical: ''Your body is overloaded, and you fall unconscious, twitching involuntarily. Left untreated, you may die. '''Stimulant: '''You are overcome with a particular emotion – anger, fear, bliss, arousal, and so on. These drugs are often used recreationally, but may also be used to manipulate another's behavior. '''Hallucinogenic: The world becomes surreal, and you see things which are not there. Depending on the emotional state of the target, this may lead to running from or attacking imagined monsters, or sitting happily in a state of wonder. As such, Hallucinogens are frequently combined with Emotional Stimulants to achieve a specific effect.' '''Hypnotic: '''These rare and potent drugs cover the brain in a potent haze, making their victim's mind loose and suggestible. A target who is hypnotized automatically fails any Insight or Deception checks, making them easy to manipulate or get the truth out of. They take no physical action while hypnotized, though sudden and abrupt violence may break them out of their state.